The law of breakup of monopolies/dominant companies differs across jurisdictions. In this article, the Author analyses the law of breakups in the United States and India. In this series of articles, the author makes a holistic analysis of the concept of break-up/division of dominant enterprises/monopolies along with the jurisprudence on the subject. The other parts of this series can be found here: Part I –Understanding the Remedy of Break-up of Dominant Enterprises Part II – Understanding the Law of Break-ups 1. American Perspective Under Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, 1890 (“Sherman Act”) monopolization has been prohibited in its various forms. The Supreme Court of the United States of America…

Of late, there have been passionate political calls throughout the world to break-up the ‘big tech’ companies like Facebook, Amazon, Apple, etc. This is primarily because of the overwhelming power that these companies hold in their relevant markets and the near-monopolist advantage that these companies hold over the new entrants in their market. At the outset, this call purports to base itself on the touchstone of the principle of break-up of dominant/monopolistic companies and groups under competition/anti-trust laws. While some of the reservations presented under this call to break-up do raise some pertinent questions, while some of the allegations made against these companies are only clothed as competition concerns but…

The Competition Commission of India (“CCI”) is empowered, under Section 46 of the Competition Act, 2002, to grant lesser penalties to members of cartels where (i) they have made a full and true disclosure in respect of the alleged violations and (ii) this disclosure is sufficient to enable CCI to form a prima-facie opinion about the existence of a cartel or which helps to establish the contravention of the provisions of section 3 of the Act. 15 years after this provision was enacted along with the Competition Act, the first case under Section 46 was decided by CCI in 2017. This article seeks to set out the law behind the…

The Competition Commission of India (“CCI”) as a third of its duties under the Competition Act, 2002, upholds the mandate of regulation of combinations so as to ensure that any acquisitions and mergers do not have appreciable adverse effect on competition in India. The Indian combination regulation regime comprises of the Competition Act, 2002 (“Act”) and the CCI (Procedure in Regard to the Transaction of Business Relating to Combinations) Regulations, 2011 (“Combination Regulations”). This article seeks to analyze the nature of gun-jumping as an offence and comment upon the present position of law as to what constitutes gun jumping today. Combination Regulation – Introduction Section 5 of the Act…